Summer is nearly over and in less than a week the new term will be begin. Despite having no real connection with schools anymore - the academic year still exerts its influence. Everything seems to stop over July and August. Life steps down a gear - though work still continues at usual it just becomes harder to get anything done. August is my least favourite month.
But September is something else. I love September. A chill comes into the air, Autumn clothes are dug out, life begins to pick up again. After the lethargy of the "summer" I feel a new energy to embark on new projects and get back to all my usual activities. Orchestra begins next Tuesday with my first oboe lesson the day after. A new term, a new academic year, a new start. I already have my new practice book, am wondering what music we will be playing in our first Orchestra concert and have started browsing June Emerson wondering what music my teacher may suggest we work on this term.
This week I've booked myself on two courses for next year. One is a day's reed making course, the other a weekend wind ensemble playing course. They are both months off but I am already excited. Later this year there is a double reed day that I am hoping to go to, and in February an annual wind play day which is always lots of fun.
Summer practice has been reasonably productive though. At the start of the summer I wrote a list of old repertoire that I wanted to play through. I have come to the end of that list now - some pieces I lingered over for a few days (Marcello and Cimerosa concertos, Britten Metamorphoses, Poulenc Sonata), for others one play through was sufficient (Meyer Rustical Miniatures, Schumann Romances). I also played through the Ferling Studies that I studied in my first year of lessons. I've played through some of the Luft studies too.
I've managed a little bit of reed making - not as much as I maybe should have done but I have managed to do 3 or so practice sessions on reeds that I have made myself. A small step in the right direction.
I think I've improved on the pieces that my teacher asked me to look at:
Telemann Fantasia No 4 - I think I am just beginning now to really get to grips with the second movement. It has been a struggle - but finally it is paying off. A few more days will hopefully make this even more secure.
Harty - Orientale. There are some timing bits here that I can't fathom but the rest of it is coming together reasonably. Though need to work on the cadenza runs a little this week.
Hindemith Sonata Mvt 2 - this has really grown on me. I have been playing this along to a recording in the last couple of weeks. It isn't something I often do but in this case it has really helped in understanding the music. Playing with the piano accompaniment has made a number of things click into place.
Luft Study 23 - notes are fairly secure and have been working on playing through, breathing, phrasing.
Luft 24 - well, I wasn't asked to look at this, but I have done and it is sounding OK now.
Scales are becoming more engrained, I've worked on playing extended major scales (tonic to highest note on instrument, down to lowest and back to tonic) and playing major scales in 3rds. They are beginning to be more fluent now.
I think my tuning and vibrato has also improved over the last few weeks when I've been able to put in very consistent practice.
What will this year bring? No exams to focus on this time, but I am looking forward to improving all aspects of my playing by exploring lots of new repertoire. I would like to focus on learning to make reeds so that I can more self reliant in that departmnet. I would also love to buy a Cor Anglais at some point. Let's see what the year brings.
Showing posts with label rehearsals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rehearsals. Show all posts
Thursday, 30 August 2012
Monday, 18 June 2012
The point of it all...
After all the stress of Friday, I am glad to say that Saturday turned out to be a wonderful day.
It was an early start - we left the house at 7:30am, which is quite painful for a Saturday and the doors opened at 9am. After registration and general introduction, we were straight into the sectional rehearsals - done with just the amateur participants. I was rather alarmed to find that I was the only one on first oboe so it was definitely straight in at the deepend. It wasn't too scary in the end though as the general atmosphere was very encouraging and supportive, everyone was finding the music hard. The 90 minutes rehearsal flew by and is was soon lunch time.
After lunch it was full orchestral rehearsal for nearly 3 hours (with a tea break fortunately). The professional players joined us for this which made it a bit less scary - they covered the hardest bits, made sure we came in at the right time, but also took a little bit of back seat when it came to the solos to let the participants have a go. It was really great to hear the whole piece come together and the sound was amazing.
Just time for a cup of tea and a piece of cake before the final performance. The concert was great fun, the sound was fab and, despite my misgivings about the difficulty of the music, we pulled it off. I think the professionals were definitely covering a lot of the Stravinsky bits but I still managed the (very short) exposed oboe bits in the Beceuse. The Gershwin was definitley my highlight though - a really, really fun piece to play that I don't think I would ever have had the opportunity to play!
So overall, a fantastic day which I enjoyed more than I ever expected to. I managed to play more of the music than I thought I would and both my reed and lip lasted to the end despite about 5-6 hours playing. I really enjoyed joining with other people and playing beautiful music in a fabulous concert hall. This really is the point of all the lessons and practice after all.
We played:
Walton - Crown Imperial (a good warm up opener)
Gershwin - An American in Paris (some amazing solos from the brass and clarinets, great fun!)
Stravinsky - Firebird extract, Infernal Dance to the end (challenging but we pulled it off)
It was an early start - we left the house at 7:30am, which is quite painful for a Saturday and the doors opened at 9am. After registration and general introduction, we were straight into the sectional rehearsals - done with just the amateur participants. I was rather alarmed to find that I was the only one on first oboe so it was definitely straight in at the deepend. It wasn't too scary in the end though as the general atmosphere was very encouraging and supportive, everyone was finding the music hard. The 90 minutes rehearsal flew by and is was soon lunch time.
After lunch it was full orchestral rehearsal for nearly 3 hours (with a tea break fortunately). The professional players joined us for this which made it a bit less scary - they covered the hardest bits, made sure we came in at the right time, but also took a little bit of back seat when it came to the solos to let the participants have a go. It was really great to hear the whole piece come together and the sound was amazing.
Just time for a cup of tea and a piece of cake before the final performance. The concert was great fun, the sound was fab and, despite my misgivings about the difficulty of the music, we pulled it off. I think the professionals were definitely covering a lot of the Stravinsky bits but I still managed the (very short) exposed oboe bits in the Beceuse. The Gershwin was definitley my highlight though - a really, really fun piece to play that I don't think I would ever have had the opportunity to play!
So overall, a fantastic day which I enjoyed more than I ever expected to. I managed to play more of the music than I thought I would and both my reed and lip lasted to the end despite about 5-6 hours playing. I really enjoyed joining with other people and playing beautiful music in a fabulous concert hall. This really is the point of all the lessons and practice after all.
We played:
Walton - Crown Imperial (a good warm up opener)
Gershwin - An American in Paris (some amazing solos from the brass and clarinets, great fun!)
Stravinsky - Firebird extract, Infernal Dance to the end (challenging but we pulled it off)
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2,1-2,1-2-3, 1-2-3-4
I had another Rite of Spring rehearsal last night. I think it's starting to click a bit. One of the more experienced players was claiming it was easy, "you just need to count." Just? Well maybe. I can nearly manage the counting as long as I don't have to play any notes at the same time.
It did make me realise that most of the time I don't count - I rely on feeling the pulse and the rhythm often just slots in quite easily. I rarely have to think about it very consciously except when counting rest bars and even then I find I a physical action such as putting fingers on my instrument more reliable than counting in my head. Unfortunately that isn't good enough for this. I need to actually count. In my head. All the time. And play at the same time. It was beginning to get there at the end, it felt less like guesswork and following the person next to me and more knowing when I should play. It's getting there.
It did make me realise that most of the time I don't count - I rely on feeling the pulse and the rhythm often just slots in quite easily. I rarely have to think about it very consciously except when counting rest bars and even then I find I a physical action such as putting fingers on my instrument more reliable than counting in my head. Unfortunately that isn't good enough for this. I need to actually count. In my head. All the time. And play at the same time. It was beginning to get there at the end, it felt less like guesswork and following the person next to me and more knowing when I should play. It's getting there.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
juggling and fluttering
I feel like I am going through a particularly busy time at the moment trying to juggle work and lessons and life and rehearsals with two orchestras. I am hoping this is only for a short time as it is getting rather wearing.
I had a lesson last week which went well - we looked at the Luft Study no 11. This had two weeks of practice due to half term so was in a reasonable state. Now looking at Study No 12 which is actually completely different to all the others so far. It is Adagio but has a large number of trills. I think I'd rather go back to lots of semi quavers but I know that I need to pratice trills so it is definitely doing me good. I am now working on the last piece from Richardson's French Suite and the Mozart is coming on quite nicely. I need to get my trills sorted out in that one too! Telemann's Fantastia no 2 is also progressing. I have another two weeks to practice again as teacher can't do this week's lesson. So a few more days to make progress.
Last night we had sectional rehearsals for the Rite of Spring which seemed to go well. We looked at the very beginning and the start and end of the second part. I have a lot of rests at the beginning so I did have at least 30 minutes of counting rather than playing to start off with, which wasn't so great but part and parcel of rehearsals. When I did get to play it was meant to be flutter tongued chromatics. I haven't worked out how to do this yet. I can roll my R's quite happily and flutter tongueing on the flute is reasonably straight forward. But doing that with a double reed is quite a different matter. I was trying to work out how I actually roll my R's to understand why it is difficult - I think I create a focussed high speed air flow and then allow the tongue to bounce off the stream of air pressure. A little like doing a drum roll on a snare. Trying to do that with a reed is so difficult because it is impossible to get that amount of air down it, and the reed then gets in the way of the toungue so that it doesn't rebound in the same way. I need to do some more experiments but I think the embouchure needs to be different and less reed needs to be in the mouth. Whether that will still then be in tune is a different matter. for this piece i don't think it will matter. The oboe is lost within the flutes and clarinets who are also doing the chromatic sections so I should be able to fake it a bit.
I had a lesson last week which went well - we looked at the Luft Study no 11. This had two weeks of practice due to half term so was in a reasonable state. Now looking at Study No 12 which is actually completely different to all the others so far. It is Adagio but has a large number of trills. I think I'd rather go back to lots of semi quavers but I know that I need to pratice trills so it is definitely doing me good. I am now working on the last piece from Richardson's French Suite and the Mozart is coming on quite nicely. I need to get my trills sorted out in that one too! Telemann's Fantastia no 2 is also progressing. I have another two weeks to practice again as teacher can't do this week's lesson. So a few more days to make progress.
Last night we had sectional rehearsals for the Rite of Spring which seemed to go well. We looked at the very beginning and the start and end of the second part. I have a lot of rests at the beginning so I did have at least 30 minutes of counting rather than playing to start off with, which wasn't so great but part and parcel of rehearsals. When I did get to play it was meant to be flutter tongued chromatics. I haven't worked out how to do this yet. I can roll my R's quite happily and flutter tongueing on the flute is reasonably straight forward. But doing that with a double reed is quite a different matter. I was trying to work out how I actually roll my R's to understand why it is difficult - I think I create a focussed high speed air flow and then allow the tongue to bounce off the stream of air pressure. A little like doing a drum roll on a snare. Trying to do that with a reed is so difficult because it is impossible to get that amount of air down it, and the reed then gets in the way of the toungue so that it doesn't rebound in the same way. I need to do some more experiments but I think the embouchure needs to be different and less reed needs to be in the mouth. Whether that will still then be in tune is a different matter. for this piece i don't think it will matter. The oboe is lost within the flutes and clarinets who are also doing the chromatic sections so I should be able to fake it a bit.
Friday, 17 February 2012
Rite of Spring - first rehearsal
I made it to the Rite of Spring rehearsal on Monday. I am glad to say that I managed to find the rehearsal venue this time, last time I ended up spending half an hour driving around the village before giving up and going home. I am also glad to say that it doesn't now seem as impossible as it did when I first listened to it, thought that doesn't mean it isn't very difficult! We covered a fair chunk of the piece - started midway through part 1 and went to about half way through part 2. I was sight reading most of it, and I couldn't get all the notes but most of the time I knew where we were and which notes I should be attempting. I managed a few bits where I was the only oboe playing - which was a bit scary. Most importantly I know which bits need pratice and how to approach practising them. So a very positive evening. There maybe some sectionals in a couple of weeks which, I'm sure, will be very helpful.
Teacher did forget to bring my Telemann back though so that will have to wait till next week.
Teacher did forget to bring my Telemann back though so that will have to wait till next week.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Glinka and Borodin
It seems to have been a very busy week, and although I have found time to practice, I haven't found time to write about practicing. It has been ticking along in the background though.
I really enjoyed orchestra practice last night. I usually enjoy it but it did feel like a particularly good rehearsal to me, mainly becuase my reed was working particularly well which always makes everything a little better. We also worked on some really nice pieces of music:
Glinka - Ruslan and Ludmilla. This is quite a fun piece to play, we certainly don't play it at the speed that a professional orchestra would it does roll along quite nicely. It also has a very recognisable tune that sticks in your head for days afterwards. There are som very woodwind sections with parts interlinking - but overall it isn't really too complicated.
Borodin - Petit Suite. we've been working on bits of this over the last few weeks but this was the first time we had a full play through all of the movements that we will be doing. There are 7 movements but we will only be doing 5 in the concert. This was originally written as piano duet but was later orchestrated by someone else. The piano origins show themselves most in the Mazurka, I think, which isn't terribly interesting as an orchestral piece. The rest of movements are rather nice though. There are some tricky corners in this that I need to look at in my practice. The scherzo at the end has some rather fiendish chromatic sections with sharps and double sharps all over the place. I probably mentioned them last time. I still need to practice them.
Next week Night on Bare mountain.
I really enjoyed orchestra practice last night. I usually enjoy it but it did feel like a particularly good rehearsal to me, mainly becuase my reed was working particularly well which always makes everything a little better. We also worked on some really nice pieces of music:
Glinka - Ruslan and Ludmilla. This is quite a fun piece to play, we certainly don't play it at the speed that a professional orchestra would it does roll along quite nicely. It also has a very recognisable tune that sticks in your head for days afterwards. There are som very woodwind sections with parts interlinking - but overall it isn't really too complicated.
Borodin - Petit Suite. we've been working on bits of this over the last few weeks but this was the first time we had a full play through all of the movements that we will be doing. There are 7 movements but we will only be doing 5 in the concert. This was originally written as piano duet but was later orchestrated by someone else. The piano origins show themselves most in the Mazurka, I think, which isn't terribly interesting as an orchestral piece. The rest of movements are rather nice though. There are some tricky corners in this that I need to look at in my practice. The scherzo at the end has some rather fiendish chromatic sections with sharps and double sharps all over the place. I probably mentioned them last time. I still need to practice them.
Next week Night on Bare mountain.
Monday, 16 January 2012
Mahler Symphony no 3 part 1
Yesterday I had my first rehearsal with my teacher's orchestra. We were rehearsing from 10:30 to 16:00 so I was worried my lip would collapse by the end of it. In fact, most of my time was spent counting rests and then failing to come in at the right time or not being able to make my oboe work when I needed to come in, (that improved as the day went on and I settled down a bit) so I don't feel like I did very much playing at all! It was an interesting experience though - it felt very different to my normal orchestra, and most of the focus was on getting details right rather than worrying about coming in at the right time, and playing the right notes. The whole process felt very intense, efficient and quick moving. The day seemed to fly by. I think it will be OK on the night. There are a couple of bits I need to really practice this week as they went so much faster than I've been playing them but no exposed bits to worry about and for that I am very thankful, as it felt nerve wracking enough without.
Next rehearsal on Friday.
Next rehearsal on Friday.
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